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Tech women struggle on first day of NCAA Championships

SUGAR GROVE, Ill. — Texas Tech women’s golfers dug themselves a deep hole on the first day of the NCAA Championships.

Freshman Sofia Garcia’s 8-over 80 was the team’s best score as the Lady Raiders settled into last place among 24 teams. Tech’s Lauren Mason shot 84, Cara Barker 85, Gabby Barker 86 and Mami Yamamoto 87 on a cold, wet, windy day at the Rich Harvest Farms course near Chicago. The Lady Raiders’ five players made only four birdies among them.

The tournament format is 54 holes of stroke play over three days, followed by a cut to 15 teams for Monday’s final round of stroke play. After that, the top eight teams advance to match play Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tech is 16 shots outside the cut line going into Saturday’s second round, with more challenging conditions possibly in store. The National Weather Service forecast for Saturday calls for a high of 67 degrees but with an 80 percent chance of rain and 10-15 mph east winds, gusting to 25.

Northwestern leads the field at 13-over 301, followed by Kent State at 303 and Ohio State, Arizona State, Stanford and Baylor at 311. Kent State was the last of the six teams to advance out of the NCAA Lubbock Regional two weeks ago, finishing one place behind Texas Tech.

No player finished the opening round in red numbers. Purdue’s August Kim and Michigan’s Elodie Van Dievoet top the leaderboard at even-par 72.